You're probably being downvoted for your attitude.
It was meant to be a fun competition.
Most people were in it for the enjoyment, not the prizes,
and could see the funny side of it after the game was over.
You couldn't, preferring to feel angry and cheated
and venting that the whole thing was unfair.
You are the only competitor I'm aware of who has
expressed this point of view.
To illustrate the stark difference in attitude, I embed
below a number of
public comments
from others who were in
the competition and who also missed Ton's magic formula.

From Jasper (top score of those who missed Ton's magic formula):

Now, as an afterthought, am I the only person to have missed the
perlgolf history book, and the only person who submitted a score that
didn't have something like : $;.=5x$_*8%29628 :)
I had a good time doing it, though. Thanks, Samy...

From `/anick, who missed out on the last prize by one stroke:

Yeah. Whoever wrote that "the one who doesn't learn from history is
condemned to repeat it" was wildly optimistic. *sigh*

But nevermind that blunderific overlook of the Great Thome of Golfic
Knowledge. Nevermind an obscenely tumefied forehead, caused by repeated
percussions against my desk during the ever-excruciating quest for the
next shaved stroke. What really make me wail like a tax-audited banshee
is that the referee just went through the last of the pending entries,
allowing m.wrenn to sneak one stroke ahead of me and bump me off the
top 20, literally yanking the prized t-shirt off my clenched fists.

m.wrenn, if you are on this list, consider my fist -- yes, that same
fist that you so fiendishly robbed from its prize -- shaked in barely
supressed fury in your general direction. And mark my words: one day, I
shall have my revenge upon thee!

Oh, and many thanks to the referee and Fonality for the course. It
was a blast!

When putting a smiley right before a closing parenthesis, do you:

Use two parentheses: (Like this: :) )
Use one parenthesis: (Like this: :)
Reverse direction of the smiley: (Like this: (: )
Use angle/square brackets instead of parentheses
Use C-style commenting to set the smiley off from the closing parenthesis
Make the smiley a dunce: (:>
I disapprove of emoticons
Other